Fulham vs. Arsenal: Mikel Arteta sent Alex Iwobi demand as team news prediction made for Premier League clash

Arsenal have a golden chance to “stamp their authority” on the Premier League in Saturday’s clash with Fulham, Charles Watts has told Sports Mole.

Mikel Arteta‘s men can temporarily open up a four-point gap over Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table by getting the better of Marco Silva‘s men, but Arsenal have flattered to deceive on their last two trips to Craven Cottage.

Arteta oversaw a dampening 2-1 defeat away to Fulham in the 2023-24 season, before last season’s dispiriting 1-1 draw, in which Bukayo Saka had a last-gasp winner disallowed due to Gabriel Martinelli being offside in the build-up.

In spite of Arsenal’s recent failures at Craven Cottage, Watts believes that the recent success at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park – another unhappy hunting ground for the Gunners – should serve as added motivation for a crucial London derby.

“I haven’t enjoyed my last two visits to Craven Cottage,” Watts said. “It’s not been much fun. Last year was very, very close to being a win, the year before was one of the worst performances, if not the worst performance of the season for Arsenal. It’s not been a happy hunting ground. They need to go there and put that right.

“We’ve seen what they did at St James’ Park. They went to a ground where they’ve had some really bad past recent history and put things right in fantastic fashion. They’ll want to do that again at Craven Cottage. They’ve got themselves top of the table, which is fantastic – you want to really kick on now and cement your position.

“You look at the fixtures they’ve got, Fulham, Palace, Burnley, Sunderland – they’re not easy games, but they’re still fixtures you look at and think, we can get some points here and really get into the season.

“So Saturday is hugely important for Arsenal, having just overtaken Liverpool. They need to stamp their authority on the season now that they’re in top spot, and they need to go to a ground where they’ve struggled. It’s a really, really important game.”

Fulham vs. Arsenal: Why Mikel Arteta should not worry about Alex Iwobi

Over the past few years, Fulham have made a habit of poaching fringe Arsenal players and rehoming them in the capital, notably taking Bernd Leno, Emile Smith Rowe and Alex Iwobi off their hands.

The Cottagers also took Reiss Nelson on loan from their London rivals last year and were tipped to re-sign him in the latest summer window too, but the former England youth international headed to Brentford instead.

Fellow Hale End graduate Smith Rowe is currently struggling for starts, but Iwobi has become a key man for Silva, providing one goal and two assists from his first seven games of the Premier League season.

Watts is of the view that Iwobi is one of the most underrated players in England, but he does not want Arsenal to fixate on the Nigeria international’s qualities, instead imploring Arteta’s men to focus on themselves.

“Iwobi is one of the most underrated players in the Premier League,” he added. “He’s a fantastic player and he’s done so well since he’s been at Fulham. People are finally starting to appreciate just how good a footballer he is, because he went under the radar a lot.

“He really has turned himself into such an influential player at Fulham, one of their most important players. So Arsenal have to keep him quiet, but I don’t want Arsenal thinking they need to really focus on Fulham players. Fulham need to be focussing on Arsenal. That’s the mindset Arsenal need to take in every single game.

“They’re good enough dominate these games, really put teams to the sword. I want to see them do that, starting this weekend. This period of this period of games is so important for Arsenal. They’ve chased Liverpool down, they’ve got in front. Now they need to show everyone ‘we’re here. We mean real business.’

“Rather than worrying about Iwobi, Emile or how the hell they stop Raul Jimenez – he’s caused Arsenal problems in the past – they just need to worry about themselves and make Fulham more concerned about dealing with Arsenal than Arsenal having to deal with Fulham.”

Could Mikel Arteta spring surprises in Arsenal’s starting XI?

Arsenal go into gameweek eight of the Premier League season without known absentees Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus, Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz, but the rest of Arteta’s squad is fit and firing.

Eberechi Eze is expected to get the nod in the Odegaard role with the captain sidelined, potentially leading to a two-way fight between Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli for the left-wing spot in the visitors’ starting XI.

However, Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhaes have both been on duty with Brazil in the Far East, and the latter memorably sustained his season-ending hamstring injury against Fulham last term soon after the international break.

Nevertheless, Watts still expects Arteta to go with a full-strength starting XI before potentially making a couple of alterations for the impending Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid.

“The Brazilian boys have had real travel issues this international break,” he added. “They’ve clocked up an awful lot of air miles. I remember against Fulham as well last season, Gabriel came back from international duty, played and did his hamstring.

“There was a lot of talk about was that due to the flight? Mikel said it wasn’t, but is that going to play into his thinking a little bit? Arsenal are in that position now – each week there seems to be maybe one surprise in the team. Last time it was Zubimendi was on the bench, which no one was really expecting.

“We’ve seen him do it with William Saliba, Declan Rice, so it’s hard to call exactly what Mikel is going to do. But I think if he’s confident in everyone’s fitness, he’ll go all in on the Fulham game. If he’s going to make any changes, it will probably be against Atletico Madrid, but I think he’ll go as strong as he possibly can for this first game back.”

Whoever starts in Arsenal’s backline will protect undisputed number one David Raya following his recent pay rise, although Watts also explained why there is no rush to extend the Spaniard’s contract.